Man treated for H7N9 in Shanghai

 Shanghai, Shanghai, CN 

1h

38-year-old man diagnosed with H7N9 bird flu in Shanghai, China, currently being treated in hospital - @cctvnews


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China reports human H7N9 avian influenza cases from Shanghai, Guangdong

December 7, 2014

Chinese health authorities have announced two additional human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9), one from Shanghai municipality on Dec. 6 and one today from Guangdong Province.

On Saturday, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission announced (computer translated) a confirmed case of the avian influenza (AI) in a 38-year-old male resident of the city. He is currently isolated at a local hospital and involved in active treatment. This is the 42nd human avian influenza A(H7N9) case reported from Shanghai municipality since the outbreak began in China in March 2013.

On Sunday, the Guangdong Ministry of Health and Family Planning reported (computer translated) reported a 66-year-old man in Meizhou, Guangdong Province who contracted the virus. The patient passed away on December 3. This was the 111th human avian influenza A(H7N9) case reported from Guangdong Province since March 2013.

As of Dec. 1, the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) has tallied 459 cumulative H7N9 AI cases, all linked to Mainland China. Ten cases have been reported in Hong Kong, one in Malaysia and four in Taiwan.

The additional cases come as Chinese officials are finding higher level H7N9 AI detection of poultry stalls at live markets in the prefecture-level coastal city of Zhuhai, in Guangdong province, ..... ... ..... reports. "The city's live poultry wholesale markets and farmers markets outside environment has H7N9 virus and was detected in some markets virus contamination rate of 40 percent." This detection rate is up from 20 percent earlier in the year.

A spokesperson for the Zhuhai City CDC said, "This ratio is quite high, this means the chance of human infection with H7N9 is greatly improved, especially in the live bird market practitioners."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), no human infections with H7N9 viruses were reported until reports from China in March 2013. The most common presentation seen in people infected with H7N9 avian influenza has been severe pneumonia.

Most known human H7N9 infections result from direct contact with infected poultry, or indirect contact with infected poultry (for example, by visiting wet markets and having contact with environments where infected poultry have been kept or slaughtered). A minority of cases appear to have resulted from limited person to person transmission. Because H7N9 infections do not cause severe disease in poultry, this infection can spread “silently” among poultry.

Human infections with other subgroups of H7 influenza viruses (H7N2, H7N3, and H7N7) have previously been reported in Australia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Most of these infections occurred in association with poultry outbreaks. The infections mainly resulted in conjunctivitis and mild upper respiratory symptoms, with the exception of one death, which occurred in the Netherlands.

Laboratory testing conducted so far has shown that the H7N9 viruses are sensitive to the anti-influenza drugs known as neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir and zanamivir) but resistant to adamantanes (amantadine and rimantadine). Early information from China suggests that when oseltamivir was given early in the course of illness, it has been found to be effective against H7N9 virus infection in reducing severe illness and deaths. However, oseltamivir resistance has been reported since.

http://www.examiner.com/article/china-reports-human-h7n9-avian-influenza-cases-from-shanghai-guangdong

And dozens of subtypes circulating both in the wild and in Chinese wet markets to exchange genetic material with.